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Brazil museum fire: 'incalculable' loss as 200-year-old Rio institution gutted
Brazil's oldest and most important historical and scientific museum has been consumed by fire, and much of its archive of 20 million items is believed to have been destroyed.
The fire at Rio de Janeiro's 200-year-old National Museum began after it closed to the public on Sunday and raged into the night. There were no reports of injuries, but the loss to Brazilian science, history and culture was incalculable, two of its vice-directors said. "It was the biggest natural history museum in Latin America. We have invaluable collections. Collections that are over 100 years old," Cristiana Serejo, one of the museum's vice-directors, told the G1 news site. Marina Silva, a former environment minister and candidate in October's presidential elections said the fire was like "a lobotomy of the Brazilian memory".
Brazil museum fire: Funding cuts blamed as icon is gutted
A deputy director at the museum, Luiz Fernando Dias Duarte, expressed "immense anger", and accused Brazilian authorities of a "lack of attention". "We fought years ago, in different governments, to obtain resources to adequately preserve everything that was destroyed today." Demonstrators gathered at the gates of the museum on Monday morning, protesting against the budget cuts that they blame for the fire. Police were seen firing tear gas.
One issue appears to be the lack of a sprinkler system. Mr Dias Duarte told Globo TV that a $5.3m (£4.1m) modernisation plan agreed in June would have included the installation of modern fire prevention equipment, but only after October's elections. A major dinosaur exhibition, which was forced to shut following a termite attack five months ago, had recently reopened only thanks to a crowdfunding campaign.
Also at National Geographic, The Irish Times, and CNN.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by esperto123 on Wednesday September 05 2018, @01:03AM
I live about 3km (2mi) from the museum. It was older than the country itself (as a republic) but has been pratically abandoned for decades, they had to shutdown several times the last few years simply because it had no money to pay light, water and other bills. It got to the point that the museum director payed from his own pocket to cut the grass at an area near the building for the 200 year celebration a few months back.
The amount of knowledge that was lost is just unfathomable, there were several specimens of rocks, dinosaurs, the oldest human remain in the americas, voice recordings of native populations tongues that are not spoken anymore, milions of insects, a lot of which are now extinct, and much more. It is really a loss for humanity as whole.
And one of the sadest things is that this tragedy is happening 1 month away from presidential elections it this is being used by politicians and political factions to attack each other, when in fact ALL are to blame. left, right and center, none had done anything, the museum annual budget was smaller than the security them budget for a house of representatives' president while he was removed from his post for misappropriation of money.
I'm really bummed.